DOJ Finds Orange County Sheriff, DA Violated Civil Rights Using Illegal Jailhouse Informants After a six-year investigation, the DOJ says Orange County law-enforcement unconstitutionally used jailhouse informants to elicit confessions and incriminating evidence from people for years. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, Jerry Iannelli
Pittsburgh Prosecutors Relied On Man Who Allegedly Killed Baby As Witness In Bungled Case Documents obtained by The Appeal raise questions about a Pittsburgh-area mass shooting case that fell apart due to prosecutorial misconduct. Jerry Iannelli
Tennessee Man Could Be The First Person In Nearly A Century To Be Executed After Being Forced To Represent Himself At Trial Across the country, the death penalty is in steep decline. But in September, the state’s attorney general sought execution dates for nine men, and its Supreme Court set dates for two of them. Steven Hale
Why Juries Need Expert Help Assessing Jailhouse Informants Informants are highly motivated to lie. But jurors don’t always have the information or skills to discern the truth. Alexandra Natapoff
In Alabama, Decades-Delayed Justice In A Double Homicide—Or A Brand New Injustice? Police in Ozark said they solved the 1999 murders of two teenage girls using a genealogy database. But Coley McCraney‘s attorneys say that the case against their client is far from certain. Lauren Gill
Notorious Jailhouse Informant Case Resurfaces as New Orleans D.A. Race Nears DA Leon Cannizzarro used jailhouse informant Ronnie Morgan to convict a man in the killing of five teenagers, but the case was overturned. Now, Morgan is petitioning for a prison transfer, reviving the murder case. Lauren Gill
House of Cards ‘Cold case’ playing cards were just introduced into Delaware prisons in hopes of producing tips on unsolved homicides—but critics warn that informants cultivated behind bars can be dangerously unreliable. Lauren Gill
A Distressed Man Came to a Police Station Looking for Help. Hours Later, He Was In a Coma. Earl McNeil’s family is demanding answers from the National City, California, police department. Max Rivlin-Nadler
